The amazing Pink Lake

Today The Golden Scope again brings you to Africa, in this wonderful continent, many of us would like to live, away from the daily stress and surrounded by wild nature and animals….

Senegal is a West African country that faces the Atlantic Ocean. It has a tropical climate and a flat territory with a population of just over 13 million people living mainly in the coastal area and the immediate hinterland.

The interior of the country is arid and inhospitable; the other settlements are only in the vicinity of water basins, because of the tropical climate, the survival would be impossible without water.

Dakar is the capital and the most populous town in Senegal with over 1 million inhabitants which added the metropolitan area surrounding the number is 2.5 million people. Along the northern coast, about 30 kilometers from the capital, there is a natural wonder …

The Pink Lake, whose real name is Retba Lake, is so named for its stunning waters that change color depending on the intensity of the sun and in the dry season. The color is due to a particular species of algae called Dunaliella Salina, which produces a pigment red / pinkish. They become an amazing pink!

This lake has also an high salt density, similar to the famous Dead Sea and this feature helps to enhance the color of algae. Seeing from afar, the lake seems an optical illusion due to sun …

The extreme salinity has two advantages: the first is that in warmer weather it slows water evaporation, preventing the lake from drying out and the second is that, after drying in the sun, the crude salt is sold as a raw material.

See extract salt from the water is special … men, smeared with karitè cream, are immersed in water up to the dock and so they detach from the bottom crusts of salt depositing then on their pirogues. Once loaded, the pirogues are brought ashore by the women. The women participate more actively on the edge of the lake to trading with brokers for the sale of salt.

This natural wonder of the African continent is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow strip of land rich in vegetation and sand dunes that contribute to the spectacular landscape… Unesco is considering the possibility of including the amazing Pink Lake in the List of World Heritage of Humanity….of course…

T H E V I D E O

(All the photos are taken from Google.com, all the videos are taken from YouTube.com, and all belong to their original owners)